


Adventures in Betting and Snooping, or: how Jubilee & Kurt played chess and got more than they bargained for

by ladanse



Series: 5 Times The Students Figured Something Out about their Professor (and one time they learned the full story) [3]
Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Bets & Wagers, Gen, Humor, M/M, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-10-02 06:51:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10211966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladanse/pseuds/ladanse
Summary: Ororo chooses that moment to poke her head in, telling them it's time to eat. "Find what?" she asks, as they make their way to the dining room."Find the Professor a date," says Kurt. "Jubilee thinks he was on one yesterday, but since we all know that's not true - ""It is! You know what? Fine," says Jubilee. "I'll bet you ten dollars that he was on a date."Kurt stops walking and studies her. Bets mean things are serious. "Fine. If he was on a date, you win. If he was with Magneto, you pay up."Jubilee sticks out her hand, and Kurt shakes it. "Deal."(Ororo spends a few seconds wondering if she should say something, and then wisely keeps her mouth shut.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> direct sequel to the previous work of the series - go read the first two, or this won't make sense!
> 
> takes place abt six months after Apocalypse.

   
"I told you," singsongs Jubilee, from her perch atop the library's coffee table.

 

 

"I still don't believe you," says Kurt. "We agreed. I don't pay you unless there's evidence."

 

"And you'll get it," says Jubilee, "as soon as we - "

 

"Is this about your bet?" says Ororo, poking white shock of hair-first into the library.

 

Jubilee turns around, smiling beatifically. Kurt jumps, teleports, and smashes a fine Thai vase.

 

"V-w-what bet?" says Kurt, as Jubilee says, "Of course!"

 

They glare at each other.

 

"Jubilee already told me," says Ororo, looking amused. "And before you ask, Jean still isn't telling me anything."

 

"But it's been a week!" says Kurt, pouting bluely. "Still?"

 

"Still," confirms Ororo. "I am trying to corner Scott, but he is still avoiding everyone."

 

"Boys," says Jubilee in disgust. Ororo laughs, and Kurt nods along before connecting the dots and saying, "Hey! Not fair!"

 

Jubilee responds by throwing red-hot sparks in his face. Kurt disappears in a puff of smoke and reappears behind her, tackling her to the floor. Another priceless vase, this time Ancient Greek, shatters into jagged pieces.

 

They don't notice Ororo shaking her head and walking out; instead, they roll and Kurt hits his head on the corner of the coffee table. He cries out, holding his hand to his forehead, and Jubilee wrestles him down to the ground. He pops away and lands on top of the coffee table, the top of which slides out beneath him; then, he falls flat onto Jubilee's bright pink midsection and they collapse into a decidedly immobile heap.

 

"What was that?" says Jubilee, shoving Kurt off her and trying not to be too annoyed. "That was _terrible_. Normally you last longer."

 

"The table moved!"

 

"The table _moved_?"

 

"It did," Kurt insists, wondering morosely why Jubilee never believes him. He concentrates, pops onto the armchair. "Look!"

 

The top of the table apparently slides out; underneath is a chessboard and a fine wooden box of pieces. Jubilee rolls gracefully to her feet, popping her bubblegum, and leans over the board. Kurt is already sliding the box open with two-fingered hands. "Have you played?" he says, setting up the board.

 

Jubilee shakes her head. "Teach me," she says, and plops herself down into the opposing armchair.

 

"The pawn moves one square at a time," begins Kurt, and they're off.

 

*

 

Several hours later, Jubilee has lost five times and managed to play Kurt to a draw once. She's always been fast at finding patterns, which surprises people (honestly, how do they think she color-coordinates so well?) and Kurt is getting more and more excited as her games get longer.

 

Then, Jean pokes her head in.

 

"You're not supposed to use that chessboard," she says.

 

"Why not?" says Kurt, his tail flicking back and forth.

 

"The Professor won't like it."

 

"Then why hasn't he come in and told us himself?" Jubilee slides her pawn forward. "Check, by the way."

 

"Put the board away."

 

"You haven't answered my question," says Jubilee, finally looking up. "Where's the Professor if - "

 

"He's out," says Jean, sorely. "Me and Ororo are in charge."

 

"First," says Kurt, "That is a terrible choice."

 

"Excuse me - "

 

"Secondly," adds Jubilee, "the Professor is out? He doesn't ever leave the mansion. Where could he possibly have gone?"

 

Jean's eyes slide neatly away. "I don't know."

 

"Bullshit," says Jubilee, sitting up in her chair. Kurt's tail has gone carefully still, like it does right before he makes a jump. They stare her down.

 

"The Professor tells you everything," says Kurt. "You're lying."

 

"I'm not."

 

"Are too - "

 

"Fine," says Jean. "He went to review some research. Beast and Mystique are with him."

 

Jubilee studies her. "You do realize that if you won't tell us, then we'll find out ourselves?"

 

Jean snorts. "Good luck. Even I didn't - " and then she stops, because Jubilee and Kurt have lit up like sharks who smell blood in the water.

 

"So there _is_ something," says Jubilee.

 

"I knew it," says Kurt.

 

"I'm going to go practice with Cerebro," says Jean, and flees the room.

 

*

 

"If Jean knows, then so does Ororo," says Jubilee, with a highly official notebook (complete with swirly 'Operation X' titling) in her manicured hands.

 

"If Ororo knows," replies Kurt, "all the little ones who follow her might."

 

"Beast is out with the Professor, so he knows."

 

"Mystique is out with both of them, so _she_ knows."

 

Jubilee nods and adds "Mystique" to the page titled SUSPECTS. Then, she flips the page.

 

"Theories?"

 

Kurt frowns. "He's...joined a travelling circus?"

 

Jubilee looks up, blinks at him, and then blinks at him again.

 

"What?" he says. "It could happen. The Mysterious Professor X, who reads your fortune. Don't they have those in America?"

 

"They do," says Jubilee, still processing the idea of the Prof in a travelling circus. "But I don't think - "

 

Kurt pouts. "What is _your_ idea, then?"

 

"He's developed a terminal disease that's killing him slowly," says Jubilee, immediately.

 

"What," says Kurt. "No."

 

"I'm writing it down."

 

"That's even stranger than the circus!"

 

"Is not!"

 

"Is too!"

 

"Is not," says Jubilee, and sticks her tongue out at him.

 

"What if he really was just reviewing research?"

 

"Outside of the mansion?" Jubilee knows she has a point. She also knows that they're missing something. "We need to do more snooping," she says.

 

"I can talk to Beast," says Kurt; he's been helping him control his teleporation, after all.

 

Jubilee nods. "I'll take Mystique, then."

 

*

 

"Dr. McCoy?"

 

"Kurt! How's the focusing chip working?"

 

"Well, thank you," says Kurt. "Just the same problem with the height. I keep landing too far from the ground." And toppling on his head on top of Jubilee, more often than not, he doesn't add.

 

"Again? Here, let me see." The doctor pulls the metallic bracelet from his wrist and pulls out a pair of tweezers. "Was there something else you wanted?"

 

Is the Professor joining a travelling circus? Kurt doesn't say. "Actually, I had a question."

 

"What is it?" Beast stares at him expectantly, glasses settled on his nose, which is furry and blue today. (It's because Mystique's here. Jubilee doesn't believe him, but Kurt _knows_.)

 

Kurt pauses. He's not quite sure how to phrase this without sounding nosy, so he just opens his mouth and hopes for the best. "Is...uh, the Professor - "

 

"What about him?"

 

"Has he joined a travelling circus?"

 

_Whoops_.

 

Beast blinks, and then blinks again.

 

"What?"

 

"The Professor - he was out yesterday - Jubilee and - I - "

 

"Oh," says Beast, " _Jubilee_ ," as though that explains everything. "Don't listen to what she says, Kurt."

 

"But where was he? You were with him, weren't you?"

 

Beast's fingers tense over the wristband. "We were just out - at - the park," he says, thumb slipping.

 

"But there's something else," says Kurt. "We already know."

 

"I highly doubt that," says Hank, eyebrows climbing to the sky. "We were only reviewing some research."

 

"And?"

 

Beast sighs. "If you won't stop asking," he says, and puts the wristband down. "We were liaising with the Brotherhood about some of my newest genetics work," he says.

 

"Magneto was there," breathes Kurt. Jubilee was going to love this. "That's why you wouldn't tell anyone."

 

"Right," says Beast, though he isn't looking at Kurt. Kurt, for his part, is too excited to notice. "But you can't spread this around," he continues. "We wouldn't want to endanger the Professor."

 

"Of course," promises Kurt, "I won't tell anyone." Then, he runs to find Jubilee.

 

*

 

Mystique is looking blue and untouchable as ever. Jubilee fights down the residual swell of jealousy, because looking that flawless should take work, thank you very much.

 

"Where were you and the Prof yesterday?" demands Jubilee.

 

Mystique regards her coolly. "We were on a double date," she says.

 

" _What_ ," says Jubilee.

 

"You heard me."

 

"I don't believe you. With who?"

 

"Not telling, you nosy little shit," says Mystique, but she's grinning. "Find out yourself."

 

"I still don't believe you," says Jubilee, not moving.

 

Mystique shrugs. "Take it or leave it."

 

Jubilee stares at her a moment longer, and then books it back to the study. Kurt is going to teleport straight through the roof when he hears this, she thinks, and runs faster.

 

*

 

As you may be able to guess, Kurt and Jubilee's next meeting is initiated with a loud crash, several thumps, a tinkle of falling glass, and vociferous, trilingual cursing.

 

When they sort themselves out, Jubilee carefully unwinding Kurt's tail from around her ankle, both are categorically vibrating with excitement.

 

"You won't believe - " starts Kurt.

 

"There's _no way_ Beast really told you - "

 

"But he said - "

 

"Mystique told me - "

 

" _Magneto_ \- "

 

"They were on a double date - " Jubilee stops, very abruptly. "What?"

 

Kurt apparently hasn't heard anything she's been saying. "They were with the Brotherhood, going over research. Magneto was there!"

 

He's grinning smugly, which under any other circumstances would be understandable - Jubilee's hapless crush on Magneto is well-known and well-documented - but now is, unfortunately, not the time. They have more important things to do.

 

"He was lying," says Jubilee, shaking her head. "Mystique said they were on a date," and wow, when she says it out loud, it sounds ridiculous.

 

Kurt rolls his eyes. "Right," he says. "The Professor. On a date."

 

"Why would she lie to me?"

 

"Maybe she didn't want to talk about the Brotherhood?" He shrugs. "Or Beast likes me better."

 

"She isn't lying," says Jubilee, although privately, she's not sure. "The Professor was on a date."

 

"But with who?" says Kurt. "Does the Professor even know anyone he could date?"

 

"Wasn't there that one CIA agent?"

 

"No, remember - "

 

"She left him to stay with her son, I know," says Jubilee. They had discovered _that_ juicy tidbit a couple months ago. "But there must be someone. And if there isn't, then we should find him someone."

 

Ororo chooses that moment to poke her head in, telling them it's time to eat. "Find what?" she asks, as they make their way to the dining room (one of four).

 

"Find the Professor a date," says Kurt. "Jubilee thinks he was on one yesterday, but since we all know that's not true - "

 

"It is! You know what? Fine," says Jubilee. "I'll bet you ten dollars that he was on a date."

 

Kurt stops walking and studies her. Bets mean things are serious. "Fine. If he was on a date, you win. But if he was with Magneto, you pay up."

 

Jubilee sticks out her hand, and Kurt shakes it. "Deal."

 

(Ororo spends a few seconds wondering if she should say something, and then wisely keeps her mouth shut.)

 

*

 

After a harrowing dinner in which Kurt thinks firmly about teleportation and Jubilee thinks firmly about the Beatles, they retreat to the library and play a few more rounds of chess. Neither of them notice the Professor wheel by the room, purse his lips softly, and wheel out.

 

*

 

Four days of unfruitful nosiness pass, in which the following developments occur:

 

1) Jean and Scott are still not talking,

 

2) Mystique leaves for a two-week mission God-knows-where, and

 

3) The Professor goes to another mysterious meeting, this time alone.

 

Kurt tries to tail them, but gets caught by the Professor a hundred yards out from the gate. He comes back inside, tail drooping from an epic "I'm-disappointed-in-you-gossip-is-bad" Dad lecture.

 

At least they've managed to find out that Scott and Jean kissed and panicked, through the (frankly genius plan) of stealing sparkling apple cider from the wine cellars, telling Jean it was champagne, and getting her "drunk."

 

("I just don't get why he hates me _so much_ ," slurs Jean into Ororo's shoulder, while Jubilee pats her on the head and makes comforting noises. "Why does he have to be a _good_ kisser? Why couldn't he have been sloppy and gross and - ")

 

They play more chess. The Notebook grows with useless information, and two of their standing bets are at a standstill.

 

Jubilee is _bored_.

 

Then, finally, things come to a head.

 

*

 

It starts, as these things do, on a day where on the surface, everything is Perfectly Normal.

 

_On the surface_ is the key phrase, here; in fact, the Professor has been jumpy and stricter than usual, snapping in class and assigning more homework. Jean is vibrating and dashing off to whisper with Ororo at every turn, in an effort to distract herself from the Incident this morning in which Scott upended orange juice in her cereal, and she dumped out his coffee in return, and then the Professor froze the both of them and forced them back into their seats. Ororo spends all of her not-Jean time playing with the under-5-year-olds, a sure indication that she's nervous.

 

The reason for all of this becomes painfully, abruptly clear when the proximity alarm and the doorbell of the mansion go off in quick succession, at precisely 11:59 a.m.

 

Reactions to this are varied. Jubilee and Kurt go still as hunters. Pietro actually stops moving. Jean says, casually, "I'll get it." Ororo unsubtly herds the younger students into their rooms.

 

And the Professor - wonder of wonders - the Professor _adjusts his cufflinks_.

 

For those who have lived in the mansion for any length of time, the magnitude of a cuff adjustment is clear. The Professor never adjusts his cufflinks, on days that he wears them; touching his sleeves is strictly prohibited to everyone, particularly the younger students. The cufflinks are silver and carved into the design of what look like little coins, and they're special, even if no one knows why.

 

Now the Professor is fiddling with them, and even Scott knows that something's up.

 

Jean opens the door. Magneto stands on the other side, imperious but for the fact that the line of his shoulders is tense as hell, holding a bottle of wine. The Professor wheels up, and says _Hello Erik, how are you, shall we go to the study_. Magneto says _yes_. Magneto follows the Professor into his study.

 

The mansion is dead silent.

 

Then - "HA!" says Kurt, his voice echoing through the foyer. "Pay up!"

 

The students unfreeze, slowly.

 

"What did you bet on this time?" says Jean, as Jubilee grudgingly pulls out her duct-tape wallet.

 

"Whether the Professor was on a date or with Magneto when he went out," says Kurt. "And I _won_."

 

Jean opens her mouth, frowning, but Ororo punches her in the arm. "Congrats, Kurt," says Ororo.

 

"Danke," says Kurt, smugly.

 

Jubilee huffs, and drags Kurt by the arm in the direction of the library. "Come on, you asshole, I need to beat you at chess."

 

"If you can!"

 

*

 

At about 4:00 p.m., Pietro stumbles into the library, looking like he's seen a ghost.

 

"Are you okay?" says Jubilee, looking up from the chess board.

 

"Nope," says Pietro, and blurs away.

 

"That was weird," says Kurt. Then, he takes Jubilee's rook.

 

*

 

At about 6:00 p.m., Jubilee and Kurt are locked in a stalemate, 5 games to 5, and Jubilee's trying a new opening, trying to pin Kurt's castle-side pawns. Kurt's queen and one of his knights is wreaking havoc on her side of the board, and she's going to be trapped soon unless she thinks of something.

 

"Try moving out your rooks," suggests a gravelly voice from the behind her chair. Jubilee looks up, and squeaks unflatteringly, because that's _Magneto_ and he's _right there._

 

There's a crash that suggests Kurt teleported in surprise. "Es tut mir Leid," Magneto murmurs. "I didn't mean to startle you."

 

"Nein, Sie haben nicht - " says Kurt, feebly, and then frowns. "Sie sind Deutsch."

 

"Das wusstest du nicht?" says Magneto, and laughs to himself. "Truly, though," he says to Jubilee. "You should bring out your rooks. Stay in command of the center of the board."

 

Dubiously, Jubilee nudges her rook over, and Magneto nods approvingly.

 

"Picking favorites, Erik?" says the Professor's voice as he wheels in, and Jubilee is torn between slumping in sheer relief and pulling out her Operation X notebook.

 

"Kurt," the Professor adds. "Press your advantage. Use your knight to fork."

 

Magneto's lip curls up. "Not what I would have done," he says.

 

"But you aren't playing," points out the Professor, leaning back with the air of a smug cat. "Go on, Kurt."

 

Kurt meets Jubilee's eyes. His expression clearly says, _what the fuck_ , and also, _help_.

 

Jubilee shrugs in return, and grins. "Can I trade his queen?" she asks Magneto, and _holy fuck she's talking to him_. (She'll need to hyperventilate later. Right now, she needs to focus.)

 

"Go ahead," says Magneto, his eyes glittering.

 

Kurt's hand floats over his knight, deliberating, and he takes Jubilee's rook. She pouts, and reaches forward to take his queen in return. He takes hers back, and she takes his pesky knight with a pawn. The board is more even now.

 

"Well-spotted, Jubilee," says the Professor. "Kurt - " he trails off, clearly speaking in Kurt's head.

 

"Cheating, Charles?" says Magneto, but it doesn't sound angry. In fact - if Jubilee didn't know better - it would sound almost playful.

 

"Wouldn't you like to know," murmurs the Professor, a slow grin gracing his face as Kurt nudges his bishop out.

 

Magneto's smile is quicksilver and bright. Jubilee's rook moves on its own accord, to threaten the bishop, and the Professor moves the bishop away, and suddenly Kurt and Jubilee are trapped awkwardly in opposing armchairs as Professor X and Magneto play keep away with their pieces.

 

Fifteen minutes later, after a fast and furiously complex match that Jubilee can barely follow, the two seem to realize that they've hijacked their students' game. The Prof wins, which makes Jubilee pout, but Magneto is actually smiling, which is a win. Probably. He does look like a bit of a homicidal maniac when he smiles, but considering -

 

"Apologies for taking over your game, Kurt, Jubilee," says the Professor, but his eyes are dark and he's looking at Magneto, not them. "Erik. Come in for a nightcap?" It doesn't really sound like a request.

 

"Of course," says Magneto, sounding shocked and a little overwhelmed. "I - yes, of course." He follows the Professor out, and raises an absent hand goodnight.

 

The room is suddenly quiet in the wake of their departure.

 

"Kurt," says Jubilee, brow furrowed, "I have another theory."

 

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are my salvation
> 
> translations:  
> Es tut mir Leid - I'm sorry  
> Nein, Sie haben nicht - No, you didn't  
> Sie sind Deutsch - You're German  
> Das wusstest du nicht? - You didn't know?  
> \----this is all according to google translate, so feel free to correct :D
> 
> coming soon: let pietro live 2K17


End file.
